What Are 108,000 Private Contractors Doing In Afghanistan?

108000 Private Contractors Are in Afghanistan and We Have No Idea What Theyre Doing

108,000 Private Contractors Are In Afghanistan and We Have No Idea What They're Doing -- Aubrey Bloomfield, PolicyMic

Two recently released reports, one by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and one by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), show that not only is the number of private contractors in Afghanistan increasing, but the Pentagon is also unable to tell what they are even doing there. Citing the reports, David Francis of the Fiscal Times points out that there are now 108,000 private contractors in Afghanistan (over 30,000 of whom are Americans), far more than the 65,700 U.S. troops still there,and the number was counted at 110,404 last month. That amounts to 1.6 contractors, roughly 18,000 of which are private security contractors, for every American soldier.